Hello Family,

As 2009 comes to an end, I have been in contemplative meditation regarding the direction that God is taking myself and my family. During this season of meditation, God continuously showers me with His wisdom and insight (some of which, I will soon be sharing with you).

In the meantime, I thank you for listening and downloading the messages from the NEXT LEVEL podcast site.  It blesses me to know that my readers are being blessed by the messages of God in both written and spoken word.  Please feel free to comment on how this ministry is being a blessing to you.  All Glory goes to God and God alone.  I am merely humbled by the opportunity that He has given to me to minister to His people.

Enjoy this reprinted article “Marriage Helps Me Become More Like Jesus. Seriously?” by David Zook.  My prayer is that you will be encouraged and enlightened by his ministry.

Blessed and Highly Favored,

Dr. Malissa

“There are three rings in marriage: the engagement ring, the wedding ring, and suffer ring” – Anonymous

You may be scratching your head thinking, “how on earth can my marriage make me more like Christ?”

Think of it this way: God’s will for you is to become more like him and less like yourself. (1 Thessalonians 4:3) He will use any means necessary to achieve his goal including your marriage.

Each of us has rough edges that need to be refined; the Lord is sculpting us day by day and he uses our spouses and the situations that pop up in marriage to draw us closer to him. Here’s how he may use your spouse:

• He uses conflicts to chip away at our pride and selfishness because he wants us to be humble and selfless.

• He uses a sudden heart attack or breast cancer diagnosis to reset our priorities … with him being number one.

• He uses a house fire to remind you that your stuff is just stuff … stop obsessing and idolizing it. Idolize him instead.

• He uses your spouse’s words to seep deeply into your conscience, convicting you of your sin so that you turn from it and to him.

• He uses your kids as truth detectors who humble you at inconvenient times.

• He uses the longevity of marriage to create patience.

• He uses marriage as a laboratory for the endless cycle of confession, forgiveness and reconciliation so that we learn how to show mercy and grace to others.

• He uses the countless sacrifices endured in a marriage as a means to learn how to die to self.

• He uses a God-honoring marriage as a way to demonstrate his goodness and beauty to the world.

• He uses the deep love in marriage to increase your capacity to love others as he loves us.

• He uses the covenant of marriage as a way to build steadfast love into your life so that you can build steadfast love into others.

Marriage is one more aspect of going through God’s refiner’s fire. He wants you to be like him and will never stop. He delights in taking lumps of coal and turning them into beautiful diamonds. The heat and pressure of marriage is an ideal environment to make you more like him.

For more information about David Zook,

please visit his blog –

“A Physical for the Christian Soul”

http://physical4christiansoul.com

Can These Dry Bones Live is a unique look at Ezekiel 37.

We as Christians can learn many lessons from this simple passage.

Now is the time to examine your situation and ask

Can YOUR Dry Bones Live?

Click on the TalkShoe player in the right lower corner of this page to hear this encouraging message!

Blessed and Highly Favored,

Dr. Malissa

God’s power is a performance enhancer!

~ Bill Winston

WALK in the POWER of GOD EACH DAY OF YOUR LIFE!

Don’t take God’s power in your life for granted!

God has granted you all things according to life and godliness!

He has given you the power to lay hands on the sick and see them recover!

In the NAME of JESUS, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that JESUS IS LORD!

HALLELUJAH!

We can do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we may ask or think!

SO ARISE CHILD OF GOD!

ARISE SON, DAUGHTER OF THUNDER!

ARISE AND BE BLESSED!

WE SHALL WALK ON WATER, SEE BLIND EYES OPEN, HEAL THE BROKEN HEARTED!

MIRACLES ABOUND BECAUSE OF THE CHRIST THAT WORKS WITHIN YOU AND ME!

GOD’S SUPER UPON OUR NATURAL CAN AND WILL ACCOMPLISH GREAT THINGS.

THE POWER OF GOD IS A PERFORMANCE ENHANCER!

WALK IN HIS POWER!

WALK IN OBEDIENCE!

HIS POWER AND AUTHORITY IS WITH YOU ALWAYS!

AMEN!

BLESSED AND HIGHLY FAVORED,

Dr. Malissa

Blessed and Highly Favored,

Dr. Malissa

NOW IS THE TIME!

THIS IS THE SEASON!

MANIFESTATION IS HERE!

~Dr. Malissa M Barbosa, DO

“Life is Lived on Levels

and

Experienced by Seasons”

~Apostle Ron Carpenter

To all the Ladies who sacrifice their lives on behalf of others.

To those Women who tirelessly give of their time, their life, their love.

For every runny nose,

For every injury,

For every broken Heart,

For every tear cried!

You are to be celebrated!

You are to be Appreciated!

You are to be Loved!

For the Mothers, the Grandmothers, the Step-Mothers, the GodMothers, the Surrogate Mothers, the Adoptive Mothers, the Unexpected Mothers!

To all the Mothers of the World, especially My Precious  Mother

Mary Brown,

Happy Mother’s Day!

Lord, Today I thank you for my mother!

Thank you for her support and encouragement!

Thank you for her unwavering and unconditional love for me.

Even when we do not see eye to eye, I thank you that we are able to find a common ground upon which to stand.

She is my mentor, my hero, my confidant, and my friend.

Bless us to continue to grow as our seasons change.

I thank you for her life!

Father, I also pray for those who are without their mothers on today!  Whether to death or absence due to unforeseen circumstances, my prayer is for the healing of their hearts. Remove the grief that strickens their soul.  Bless those brave women who have taken on the responsibility for those individuals and for those children without their mothers.  Renew these women with strength and give them the resolve to stay in their position.  Help is on the way!

For those children that do not have a relationship with their mother, I pray that you help them to mend the broken bridge that separates them from their mother.  Whatever the situation, give them the ability to move passed their emotions.  Help them find a path that will bring about forgiveness and reconciliation.  Enable them to divorce their past and build a stronger future together.

Finally Father, I pray for the new/young mothers, soon-to-be mothers and want-to-be mothers.  Give these ladies the guidance and support necessary for them to succeed.  Grant them with the resources required for them to provide for their children and to take care of their personal needs as well.  Surround them with strong mother mentors that will advise, support, and assist these women.  Remove any and all fear/anxiety associated with motherhood from their minds.  Provide these ladies with the assurances that they are not alone!

For all these women, Father I thank you.

Strength and dignity are her clothing and her position is strong and secure; she rejoices over the future [the latter day or time to come, knowing that she and her family are in readiness for it]!

She opens her mouth in skillful and godly Wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness [giving counsel and instruction].

She looks well to how things go in her household, and the bread of idleness (gossip, discontent, and self-pity) she will not eat.

Her children rise up and call her blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied); and her husband boasts of and praises her, [saying],

Many daughters have done virtuously, nobly, and well [with the strength of character that is steadfast in goodness], but you excel them all.

Charm and grace are deceptive, and beauty is vain [because it is not lasting], but a woman who reverently and worshipfully fears the Lord, she shall be praised! Proverbs 31:25-30

Amen!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

“Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.”

Romans 12:1 NIV

We must realize that our lives are not our own to do whatever with.  As a sinner, our “freedom” is our license to destruction.  The enemy is the “god” of this world and everything on this earth is dictated by his kingdom.  However, when we make a conscious decision to follow Christ, we must then begin the process of divorce.  We must publicly separate ourselves from our former way of life.  We must be willing to now take on the mind and the ways of Christ.  Willing to allow God to have total rule and reign over our lives.  In other words, we must be willing to be divorced from the self we once knew and now become married to the self that is yet to come.  We have entered God’s preordained or prearranged marriage with Him.  In the beginning, we are strangers.  But as time progresses we begin and continue to fall more in love with Him.  The only way to enter into this covenant is by divorce.  Divorce from our mind, our bodies, and our spiritual ties.  The initiation of this covenant is an act of obedience and faith.  Actually, it is at this moment that we enter into worship.  Where we unselfishly give ourselves to God and leave our minds, bodies, and spirits into His hands.

Prayer

Lord, today I divorce myself from all those things that keep me from being completely one with you.  Holy Spirit knit us, join us, allow for us to commune together with a level of intimacy that I have yet to obtain.  I thank you for this time in your word and bless this day that I may walk upright before you and man.  Bless my family and friends both near and far today.  Cover them and protect then in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Blessed and Highly Favored,

Malissa

TO GOD BE THE GLORY FOR THE THINGS THAT HE HAS DONE!

HALLELUJAH! IT HAS BEEN ONE YEAR SINCE THE BIRTH

OF

NEXT LEVEL -

STEPPING OUT OF THE ORDINARY INTO THE EXTRAORDINARY

IT WOULD BE AN UNDERSTATEMENT TO SAY THAT THIS BLOG HAS BEEN A LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE.  I CANNOT COUNT THE NUMBER OF TESTIMONIES THAT HAVE COME AS A RESULT OF THE CONTENT OF NEXT LEVEL.  YOUR PRAYERS, WELL WISHES, AND ENCOURAGEMENT FOR MY WORK HAVE BEEN OVERWHELMING.  MY HEART HAS BEEN TOUCHED BY YOUR COMMENTS AND EMAILS. GOD HAS TRULY MADE US A BLESSED PEOPLE AND IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO SHARE THE BLESSINGS OF GOD WITH OTHERS THROUGH OUR GIFTS AND TALENTS.  AS HIS SERVANT, I WILL CONTINUE TO OBEY THE VOICE OF THE LORD BY FULFILLING MY MISSION TO BLESS THE BODY OF CHRIST!

AS WE CELEBRATE THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF NEXT LEVEL YOU CAN LOOK FORWARD TO THE EXPANSION OF YOUR FAVORITE SECTIONS AND THE ADDITION OF NEW SECTIONS OF MINISTRY ON NEXT LEVEL.

“Godly Wisdom” Nuggets ^TM WILL CONTINUE TO ENCOURAGE AND INSPIRE.

THE DEVOTIONAL AND CONFESSIONS SECTION OF NEXT LEVEL WILL BE EXPANDED TO EDIFY YOUR MIND, BODY AND SPIRIT.

“A Word at Midnight” ^TM WILL MAKE ITS DEBUT.  THIS SECTION WILL INCLUDE WORDS OF PROPHECY, EDIFICATION, AND ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE BODY OF CHRIST.

THIS COMING YEAR WILL PROVE TO BE AN EXCITING TIME FOR ALL OF US AS WE TRANSITION TOGETHER INTO OUR NEXT LEVEL IN CHRIST.  THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT OF

NEXT LEVEL -

STEPPING OUT OF THE ORDINARY INTO THE EXTRAORDINARY.

MAY GOD CONTINUE TO BLESS AND KEEP YOU!

Blessed and Highly Favored,

Malissa

“I’m not going back.   I’m moving ahead.

I’m here to declare to you my past is over.

In You old things are made new.

Surrendered my life to Christ.

I’m moving forward!

You make all thing new.

Yes, You make all things new and

I will follow You forward!”

~Ricardo Sanchez and Israel Houghton Moving Forward

It is my prayer that in this season you will move forward with God

and in the direction that He has chosen for your life.

You must be stern in your conviction and

confident in the word that He has already given to you.

This not the time for you to become doubtful,

nor is it a time for you to allow other voices to deter you from

the things that God has promised you!

Your season is upon you!

Keep walking into your season!

Continue to follow after God, His voice and His leading.

Your obedience is crucial.

You cannot afford to miss a step!

Stay encouraged and allow this song to minister to you.

Blessed and Highly Favored,

Malissa